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Council Records

ALI.01

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held
at the University of Pennsylvania. Unless
otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our
reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

The American Law Institute (ALI) was founded in 1923 in response to a perceived uncertainty and complexity in American law.
Former Penn Law Dean William Draper Lewis was the Institute's first director, running the organization's operations out of
his campus office. The ALI was conceived as a representative gathering of the American Bar (including Judges, Lawyers, and
Law Professors) for the stated mission "to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation
to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal
work." The collection, 1924-2003, includes minutes, correspondence, reports, and related records regarding the activity of
the American Law Institute Council.

Cite as:

[Identification of item], in the American Law Institute Council Records, American Law Institute Archives Collection #28, Biddle
Law Library, University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Biography/History

The American Law Institute (ALI) was founded in 1923 in response to a perceived uncertainty and complexity in American law.
Former Penn Law Dean William Draper Lewis was the Institute's first director, running the organization's operations out of
his campus office. The ALI was conceived as a representative gathering of the American Bar (including Judges, Lawyers, and
Law Professors) for the stated mission "to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation
to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal
work."